blr
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2001
- Posts
- 916
- Likes
- 11
I know this PCD player has been reviewed recently, but thought that more than one review wouldn’t hurt anyway.
I got the D-EJ725 a couple of days ago as a present from my colleagues on the occasion of my PhD defence (yes you can call me Dr blr if you want). I’ve been listening to it for several hours in total comparing it to an old Sony D345 (ca 1995-6) and a cheapie player called Denver, you know one of these real cheap units with powerful headjack. Here’s what I found.
BUILD AND FEATURES
The package includes everything one needs, the player, 2 rechargable AA NiCd batteries ( the unit runs only on AA sized batteries, no expensive gumsticks), an AC adaptor/charger, LCD remote, external battery pack and earbuds (the infamous E805 which I haven’t even touched). The only complain here is the batteries. I wonder why Sony still packs their players with NiCd batteries. NiMH are not much more expensive and extend the playback times considerably according to the manual (22 hours on NiMH vs 10 hours on NiCd). I guess this is a trick to get people to buy Sony rechargables, which cost twice as much as any other brand. Anyway this is not a big drama since I already have NiMH. According to the manual 2 AA alkalines
The unit itself as all plastic, but doesn’t feel flimsy or fragile. It’s quite thin, but surprisingly its footprint is actually larger than the much older D345. The DEJ725 is lighter though. Most of the controls are on the lid. Some people may find them on the small side, but for me and my smallish fingers that’s OK. The hold, open and volume knobs are on the side together with all input and output jacks. The G-protection on/off switch is inside the unit. Bad if you ask me, since to engage the G-protection one should open the lid and remove the CD. More on the skip protection. Even with the G-protection off, the unit doesn’t skip which tells me that there is some sort of anti skip protection that cannot be turned off.
The remote is quite good. It has a backlit LCD and a strong clip at the back. Interestingly, there is no pause button on the remote (wasn’t that a Panasonic feature). The D345s remote had one. Well that’s not that bad since Sonys resume exactly from the position where they were stopped. The resume function by the way cannot be turned off unlike D345 which has a resume switch.
The bass booster is useless period.
In terms of outputs, D-EJ725 has everything one can wish for. Apart from the headjack, there is a combined line/optical out. Great news for me as a MD user. The headphone output is rated at 5 MW into 16 ohms and I expected something really underpowered. This, however is not really the case. It goes louder than my Sharp MDP which is rated as 5mW into 32 ohms and not that much weaker than the D345 which supposedly has something like 10 or even 15 mW amp, go figure. I haven’t compared it to any Panasonics, but wouldn’t be surprised if they’ll be about the same in terms of loudness. If I remember correctly someone even posted something like that. All in all the amp has enough power to drive low impedance, high sensitivity phones. Sure, something like HD600 are not powered properly.
SOUND
I tested the unit straight out of the headjack using Philips HP550 and MDR E888 and out of X-CanV2 via the line out using the Philips and HD600.
Out of the headphone jack, the sound is in a word warm. Compared to the other portables I have this guy has more bass (with the bass booster switched off of course) and the bass goes somewhat deeper. The midrange is the strong point of D-EJ725s headphone output. It’s warm but articulate. The player pulls surprisingly high amount of midrange detail and the levels of presence and realism are also high. Now, the bad news. The headjack is rolled-off at the top end. Not terribly so, but it is audiable even without direct comparison. There isn’t enough sparkle and energy in the treble. The overall sound isn’t muddled however. The details are there, especially in the mids, just that the treble is not this players strongest point. I wish I still had my Grado SR60s. IMO SR60 or 80 would be the ideal match for ampless listening, since they may be a bit bright which will compensate for the 725s overly warm sound, plus I expect the midrange will be marvellous.
The line out is nice. Clean articulate and smooth from top to bottom. Waaaay better than the headjack. I really enjoyed talking Heads “Naked” album with the 725, X-CanV2 and HD600. Should get this PortaCorda soon. One thing made me a very good impression. The other 2 players I tried sounded good connected to the can, but something was missing. Extended listening showed that D-EJ725 has much better imaging and soundstaging compared to D345 and especially the Denver. This is not something that one could pick up in a couple of minutes listening, but over a longer auditioning it is obvious.
CONCLUSION
All in all, I think this is a good CDP. I must admit that I was a bit sceptical cause Sonys are getting bad reviews here, but I’m rather pleasantly surprised. The D EJ725 sounds different from the older D345, namely warmer and somewhat darker out of the headphone jack. The line out IMO is the best of the 3 portables I tried. Adding an amp turns this player into a good music maker. It is also well built and has some nice features, like a digital out and a useful remote. The battery life according to Sony is 86 hours with 4 AA alkalines, which is to my knowledge the longest at present. I haven’t tested that yet, but anyway it will be long. In a word I’m happy with my new toy. Perhaps there are players out there that will sound slightly better from the headphone out, but the line out is great and the feature list impressive.
I got the D-EJ725 a couple of days ago as a present from my colleagues on the occasion of my PhD defence (yes you can call me Dr blr if you want). I’ve been listening to it for several hours in total comparing it to an old Sony D345 (ca 1995-6) and a cheapie player called Denver, you know one of these real cheap units with powerful headjack. Here’s what I found.
BUILD AND FEATURES
The package includes everything one needs, the player, 2 rechargable AA NiCd batteries ( the unit runs only on AA sized batteries, no expensive gumsticks), an AC adaptor/charger, LCD remote, external battery pack and earbuds (the infamous E805 which I haven’t even touched). The only complain here is the batteries. I wonder why Sony still packs their players with NiCd batteries. NiMH are not much more expensive and extend the playback times considerably according to the manual (22 hours on NiMH vs 10 hours on NiCd). I guess this is a trick to get people to buy Sony rechargables, which cost twice as much as any other brand. Anyway this is not a big drama since I already have NiMH. According to the manual 2 AA alkalines
The unit itself as all plastic, but doesn’t feel flimsy or fragile. It’s quite thin, but surprisingly its footprint is actually larger than the much older D345. The DEJ725 is lighter though. Most of the controls are on the lid. Some people may find them on the small side, but for me and my smallish fingers that’s OK. The hold, open and volume knobs are on the side together with all input and output jacks. The G-protection on/off switch is inside the unit. Bad if you ask me, since to engage the G-protection one should open the lid and remove the CD. More on the skip protection. Even with the G-protection off, the unit doesn’t skip which tells me that there is some sort of anti skip protection that cannot be turned off.
The remote is quite good. It has a backlit LCD and a strong clip at the back. Interestingly, there is no pause button on the remote (wasn’t that a Panasonic feature). The D345s remote had one. Well that’s not that bad since Sonys resume exactly from the position where they were stopped. The resume function by the way cannot be turned off unlike D345 which has a resume switch.
The bass booster is useless period.
In terms of outputs, D-EJ725 has everything one can wish for. Apart from the headjack, there is a combined line/optical out. Great news for me as a MD user. The headphone output is rated at 5 MW into 16 ohms and I expected something really underpowered. This, however is not really the case. It goes louder than my Sharp MDP which is rated as 5mW into 32 ohms and not that much weaker than the D345 which supposedly has something like 10 or even 15 mW amp, go figure. I haven’t compared it to any Panasonics, but wouldn’t be surprised if they’ll be about the same in terms of loudness. If I remember correctly someone even posted something like that. All in all the amp has enough power to drive low impedance, high sensitivity phones. Sure, something like HD600 are not powered properly.
SOUND
I tested the unit straight out of the headjack using Philips HP550 and MDR E888 and out of X-CanV2 via the line out using the Philips and HD600.
Out of the headphone jack, the sound is in a word warm. Compared to the other portables I have this guy has more bass (with the bass booster switched off of course) and the bass goes somewhat deeper. The midrange is the strong point of D-EJ725s headphone output. It’s warm but articulate. The player pulls surprisingly high amount of midrange detail and the levels of presence and realism are also high. Now, the bad news. The headjack is rolled-off at the top end. Not terribly so, but it is audiable even without direct comparison. There isn’t enough sparkle and energy in the treble. The overall sound isn’t muddled however. The details are there, especially in the mids, just that the treble is not this players strongest point. I wish I still had my Grado SR60s. IMO SR60 or 80 would be the ideal match for ampless listening, since they may be a bit bright which will compensate for the 725s overly warm sound, plus I expect the midrange will be marvellous.
The line out is nice. Clean articulate and smooth from top to bottom. Waaaay better than the headjack. I really enjoyed talking Heads “Naked” album with the 725, X-CanV2 and HD600. Should get this PortaCorda soon. One thing made me a very good impression. The other 2 players I tried sounded good connected to the can, but something was missing. Extended listening showed that D-EJ725 has much better imaging and soundstaging compared to D345 and especially the Denver. This is not something that one could pick up in a couple of minutes listening, but over a longer auditioning it is obvious.
CONCLUSION
All in all, I think this is a good CDP. I must admit that I was a bit sceptical cause Sonys are getting bad reviews here, but I’m rather pleasantly surprised. The D EJ725 sounds different from the older D345, namely warmer and somewhat darker out of the headphone jack. The line out IMO is the best of the 3 portables I tried. Adding an amp turns this player into a good music maker. It is also well built and has some nice features, like a digital out and a useful remote. The battery life according to Sony is 86 hours with 4 AA alkalines, which is to my knowledge the longest at present. I haven’t tested that yet, but anyway it will be long. In a word I’m happy with my new toy. Perhaps there are players out there that will sound slightly better from the headphone out, but the line out is great and the feature list impressive.